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According to our own Pam Benigno, an elementary school in Jefferson County has been quietly working to install a controversial curriculum while it and the district continue to provide parents with misleading information concerning opt-out opportunities.

Whether by design or not, Chalkbeat recently published two complementary articles on efforts to affect college attendance rates among high school students, one detailing a nationwide approaches that didn’t work, the other focusing on a program at a school right here in Colorado that did.

Sometimes dreaded and sometimes eagerly awaited, report cards are an ever-present component in the world of education. A new kind of report card was released today, but before we shift our attention to it, a brief historical note is needed to demonstrate why it was necessary in the first place.

On Friday, May 10, the Pueblo Education Association, the local affiliate of the Colorado Education Association for Pueblo School District No. 60, moved to legally challenge an April Colorado State Board of Education decision to allow an outside management company to run the struggling Risley International Academy of Innovation. State Board Chair Angelika Schroeder criticized the union’s actions on Tuesday, calling them disappointing and maintaining that it is in effect shifting attention away from where the focus ought to be: on improving student outcomes.

Today the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) released the results of its recent study on the efficacy of high school level Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs across the country. The study reveals several areas of incongruence between the training provided by these programs and the career opportunities currently available.

Yesterday, the Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC) held its annual Homeschool Day at the Capitol. Several hundred parents and students were in attendance for this event, which began with a visit of the Capitol and culminated with a rally on the west steps. Colorado’s unpredictable April weather happened to cooperate, as the bright blue skies and trees in full bloom made for a perfect setting for all the day’s activities, which included a costumed fife and drum corps parade around the perimeter of the State Capitol Building.

It ought to go without saying that an effective public education system should seek to identify classroom instructors who are successful and those who are not in order to reward and incentivize the former and to correct the latter. This was ostensibly the aim of the 2010 Senate Bill 191, the provisions of which continue to find themselves under near-constant attack nearly a decade after Gov. Ritter signed it into law.

Colorado has been a national leader in terms of accessible school choice. The brief by A+ Colorado, School Choice with Unified Enrollment, examines both the opportunities and challenges school choice has offered families in Denver. The district moved to a unified choice enrollment platform in 2012.

Federal law requires that private K-12 schools have access to federally funded “equitable services” through their local school districts. Our most recent paper outlines the various services and funding available to private schools and provides real Colorado examples of how private schools participate in federal programs.

In our latest profile of Colorado schools, author Peter Huidekoper Jr. paints a picture of how Paradox Valley Charter School serves as a successful place of learning for Pre K-12 students. The pride surrounding this small town school and the significant ties to the specific region are demonstrated through numerous interviews of Paradox Valley Charter School staff and community members.